Shirley Schwamb

June 9, 1926 - January 12, 2018

SCHWAMB (nee Willett), Shirley – 91, of Oceanview, NJ and formerly of Haddon Heights, NJ passed away on January 12, 2018. Shirley drew upon her gifts of empathy and a hungry mind, cultivating lasting friends consisting of her elders, contemporaries, and countless younger ones who came to regard her as Aunt Shirley or Mimi. Shirley grew up in Collingswood, NJ where she met and later married her high school sweetheart Charles John Schwamb (“Chuck”) shortly upon his return from military service in the second World War. After starting a family in Oaklyn, NJ, she became the loving mother of Charles Christopher Schwamb (“Chris”) and Carol Elizabeth Miller, and later proud grandmother of Ryan David Miller and Charles Benjamin Schwamb (“Ben”). As an interior decorator of utmost talent, she owned and operated 1820 House Antiques and interiors in Mullica Hill, NJ with her friend and partner Ellie Rexon. Her passion for seeing beauty in people and craft naturally radiated to the blooming gardens around her homes, where passersby could appreciate her love for getting down on her knees and working with the earth. She was an active Eta Sigma Theta sister, bridge player, and garden club member throughout her entire life. The final chapter in Shirley’s life was spent as Chris’s housemate, situated only a few miles away from Carol, who could now quickly call upon her good taste in all matters. Although a lifelong dog person, she very quickly bonded with Chris’s two somewhat bratty but charming cats and embraced the resultant mayhem thrust upon her formally more spotless sense of order. Chris’s biggest challenge in the relationship was reconstructing the daily copy of the New York Times that she devoured, but had to thoroughly disassemble due to her physical limitations. Chris considers this hardly a complaint. In the spring when the flowers are in bloom, her family will privately spread her ashes in the ocean near the town where she spent her honeymoon. A gathering will follow to celebrate her life at a date to be announced.